The three pillars at a glance
The 2004 "Who Cares Wins" report grouped sustainability issues into three inter-linked pillars — environmental, social and governance — and that structure still defines ESG today.
Each pillar covers a cluster of topics; together they describe how a company affects, and is affected by, the world around it.
The full definition is in what is ESG.
Environmental (E)
The environmental pillar covers a company's impact on the natural world — and the risks that environmental change poses to the company.
- Climate change: greenhouse-gas emissions, transition and physical risk
- Energy and resource use, water and waste
- Pollution and the circular economy
- Nature and biodiversity
In the UK this is the most regulated pillar: emissions follow the GHG Protocol, and climate disclosure is moving to UK SRS S2.
Carbon measurement tooling is compared in our carbon reporting software guide.
Governance (G)
The governance pillar covers how a company is directed and controlled — the structures that make the environmental and social pillars credible.
- Board composition, independence and oversight
- Business ethics, anti-bribery and corruption
- Executive remuneration and its alignment with long-term value
- Risk management, internal control and transparency to investors
In the UK, governance is anchored by the UK Corporate Governance Code, and governance disclosure is the first pillar of UK SRS reporting.
How the pillars map to UK SRS
The UK's UK SRS S1 and S2 translate the ESG pillars into concrete disclosure.
For the reporting detail, see ESG reporting requirements UK and ESG integration under UK SRS.
Frequently asked questions
What are the three pillars of ESG?
Environmental, Social and Governance. Environmental covers climate, emissions, resource use and nature; Social covers people, health and safety, communities and supply chains; Governance covers board oversight, ethics, pay, risk management and transparency.
Which ESG pillar is most regulated in the UK?
The environmental pillar — particularly climate — is the most heavily regulated, through climate-related financial disclosure and, going forward, UK SRS S2. Governance is shaped by the UK Corporate Governance Code, and social factors by employment and supply-chain law.
Are the ESG pillars the same as the TCFD pillars?
No. The three ESG pillars (E, S, G) describe the breadth of sustainability topics. The four TCFD pillars (Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, Metrics & Targets) describe how to structure climate disclosure within the environmental pillar.
Social (S)
The social pillar covers a company's relationships with people — its workforce, its supply chain and the communities it affects.
Social factors are shaped in the UK by employment law, modern-slavery reporting and supply-chain due diligence, and increasingly feature in mainstream sustainability disclosure.